This invention relates to an apparatus for closing and sealing filled containers with a lid. The invention relates, more particularly, to an improvement in an apparatus for closing and sealing filled containers using preformed lids in which, for each container, a lid is moved beneath a sealing die, is temporarily held against its bottom by a vacuum, and is finally joined to a container under the influence of pressure and heat.
In an apparatus for closing and sealing of the kind mentioned above, for example, the apparatus made known by the German Offenlegungsschrift (Laid Open Patent Application) No. 1,909,792, a lid is brought to the underside of a sealing die, it is sucked against it by vacuum, and then the sealing die presses the lid onto the container positioned beneath it. In this known apparatus, the lids are brought to the sealing die in the correct position by a pair of grippers so that the sealing die, in turn, correctly positions the lid on the container to be closed.
The correctly positioned delivery of the lids is not always guaranteed, within the closing and sealing apparatus, in which the lid is pushed beneath the sealing die by means of a slide. In these known apparatuses, it can happen that the lid is aspirated to the sealing surface on the sealing die in a slightly displaced position. As a consequence, the containers are not correctly closed and become rejects.